Boris Johnson has urged parents to ignore “superstitious mumbo jumbo on the internet” and to get their children vaccinated. Speaking on a hospital visit intended to promote measures to increase vaccine uptake, he said:

I think there’s complacency on the part of parents about the need to get that second [MMR] vaccine but also, I’m afraid, people have been listening to that superstitious mumbo jumbo on the internet, all that anti-vax stuff and thinking that the MMR vaccine is a bad idea. That’s wrong.

Please get your kids vaccinated because it’s not just the right thing for them, but also of course it is the right thing for the whole population because it might not be your kid that gets it, it could be somebody else’s.

Andrew, (or anyone else)...can you help explain why Corbynn wants to be a temporary time limited PM of a fragile unity govt?

If Labour want to transform the economy etc, why fight so hard to lead a govt that time limited, and policy limited to one policy (delay brexit, referendum - what's on referendum paper is another Q). If there's any deviation from this policy, Govts majority will instantly go, it's leader very publically tarred with the 'untrustworthy' brush...why would you aspire to lead this unity Govt?

Better to appear statesman like, offer it up to someone else - based on the above reason, and then take your argument for society to the country, aiming to lead for 5-10 years?

So what's in it for JC and Labour just now? What am I missing?

Actually, under Jeremy Corbyn’s offer to run a time-limited caretaker government, his only firm intention would be to negotiate an extension to Brexit and to then call an election. Why would he bother? I can think of plenty of reasons.

1) This would be a means of stopping a no-deal Brexit, which would earn Jeremy Corbyn, and Labour, great credit amongst remainers. It would also, they would say, be the right thing for the country.

2) If there is going to be an early election, there would be advantages for Corbyn to holding it with Brexit delayed - because the Tories would probably get crushed by the Brexit party.

3) An incumbent PM has many advantages in an election campaign. For example, s/he sets the date. And s/he can use the platform that government provides for party advantage, even though civil service resources are not meant to be spent on party political activity. Just look at the @10DowningStreet twitter feed, which reads like a Tory account even though it is a government one.

4) Being prime minister helps you look prime ministerial - which is particularly useful if, like Corbyn, you are thought not to be prime ministerial.

5) Even without a government majority, there is a lot a prime minister can do through prerogative powers, and through the use of patronage.

6) Prime ministers without a party majority have in the past managed to fight elections and come out with a majority (eg Wilson in 1974, Cameron in 2015).

7) No politician interested in changing Britain would turn down the chance to become PM - even for a short period.

Tom Brake, the Lib Dem Brexit spokesman, says that if Jeremy Corbyn really intends to do “everything necessary” to stop a no-deal Brexit, as he promised in his speech this morning, he must prove it. In a statement Brake said:

Jeremy Corbyn must now deliver and prove this is not just an empty promise. If he truly wants to stop a no-deal, he must accept that he must not be prescriptive about how we ensure that happens.

This is not about party leaders, but about stopping Boris Johnson from dragging us off the cliff-edge.

It is clear Jeremy Corbyn cannot command a majority in the House. He must do the right thing and confirm that if he cannot, he will support someone who can.

Shadow Chancellor J McDonnell says he would campaign to Remain in the EU if Labour negotiated a new Brexit deal and put it to a referendum. Not clear if that’s Mr Corbyn’s position. If it is, what would be point of negotitating new deal you would then oppose. Why would EU bother?

There’s clearly something of a policy power struggle going on between McDonnell/Corbyn. McDonnell has concluded Labour’s only chance of forming a government is to become 100% Remain. Corbyn, still steeped in his anti-EU Bennite roots, not yet ready for such a U-turn.

If the Johnson gamble blows up in his face at an election, it will be in part be because that cultural halitosis surrounding the Tory party and poshness meant that he was unable to make significant breakthroughs in the likes of Bishop Auckland while still losing seats to the Liberal Democrats in the likes of Cheltenham.

That’s why Jeremy Corbyn’s attack lines on Boris Johnson – wheeled out in his big speech today, which offered us a preview of Labour’s preferred approach to an autumn election – are worth watching. Corbyn is talking up Johnson’s membership of the elite and explicitly linking Johnson in with the Tory party and with wealth (of the nine mentions of Boris Johnson in Corbyn’s speech, all were paired with a reference to his Conservativeness and his poshness).

The EU is not a G7 country, but for some reason two of its presidents (president of the commission and president of the council - there are several others) normally attend, making it effectively a G9 meeting.

Corbyn's speech and Q&A - Summary and analysis

Boris Johnson has been in hyperactive campaign mode since becoming prime minister and some Labour figures have reportedly been complaining that Jeremy Corbyn has given him something of an easy ride. Today Corbyn responded with a lengthy and wide-ranging speech that set out the case Labour would put to the public in the general election widely expected within the next few weeks or months. You can read the full text here. It was clear and coherent, and as a round-up of Labour’s policy offer, it was fine (although the party could probably still go a lot further in terms of boiling it down to a two or three-point message that everyone would remember).

Johnson makes much of his ability to project optimism, and there was some evidence in the speech of Corbyn trying to respond in kind, for example when he spoke of the possible “fantastic” future available under Labour. (See 11.36am.) But exuberance isn’t a Corbyn forte, and he was much better when he was critiquing the government. The best passage was probably the one where he described Johnson’s spending announcements as an admission that Labour has won the argument on austerity (see 11.29am), and the points he made about crime and youth services that he used to back this up (see 11.31am).

But you can’t take down a government with a single speech, and so at best this was just a start. It may also have been infused with a bit of wishful thinking. Corbyn has often spoken in terms that suggest he wants to move on from Brexit and his speech contained a persuasive passage arguing that the problems facing the country go well beyond Brexit. (See 11.02am.) They do. But politicians have to campaign in the world as it is, on an agenda not always of their own choosing, and the Q&A made it clear that the prospect of the next election not being dominated by Brexit seems remote.

There is a summary of some of the main lines in the Corbyn speech here. And here is a summary of the main points from the Q&A.

Corbyn said any MPs serious about stopping a no-deal Brexit should back him to lead an interim government. Asked about calls for him to allow someone else to form a cross-party, interim government to block no deal, he replied:

I am the leader of the opposition, the leader of the Labour party. All the constitutional precedents are, when a government collapses, it’s the leader of the opposition that takes over.

There seems to be an awful lot of very imaginative what iffery in the press at the present time. We will put a motion of no confidence in the government. We will do everything we can to stop a no deal Brexit.

I have written to the leaders of all of the other opposition parties inviting them to join me in this and I simply say to them, and to those probably quite small number of Conservatives who are alarmed at the prospect of a no deal Brexit: “If you’re serious about stopping an no-deal Brexit, then back my motion of no confidence to stop this government taking us over a cliff edge on the 31st October.”

Corbyn played down the prospect of MPs being able to stop a no-deal Brexit by any means other than using a no confidence vote to install him as an interim prime minister. He said:

We offer to form a minority administration in order to give the people the choice in the future through a general election. That’s what we’re saying. That is the constitutional precedent. That is the norm.

All this speculation about lots of other options - they actually don’t exist. The option that exists is the constitutional precedent of the opposition taking over in order to facilitate an opportunity for an election campaign.

This is slightly different from the line taken by John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, in his Today interview this morning in which he stressed that a no confidence motion was not the only means available to stop no deal. (See 9.33am.)

Herefused to commit to backing remain in a second referendum held by Labour after a general election. (See 11.55am.)

He refused to rule out Labour officially remaining neutral in a second referendum on Brexit held after a general election. (See 11.46am.)

When the UN produces a report that says millions of people in the fifth richest country in the world are living in poverty, and it’s getting worse - if that came out under Labour government, every media outlet in the land would be condemning us, and they would be right. Where’s the voice against the Tories for doing that?

Boris Johnson says EU will have to compromise for Brexit deal to happen

In an interview in Cornwall during his hospital visit, Boris Johnson also said that the EU would have to compromise for there to be a Brexit deal. Asked whether progress would be made during his talks with Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron later this week, Johnson replied:

Well that is, I’m afraid, very much up to our friends and I hope that they will compromise.

They have seen that the UK parliament has three times rejected the withdrawal agreement, the backstop just doesn’t work, it’s not democratic and I hope that they will see fit to compromise but in the meantime we get ready to come out on October 31.

No 10 claims leaked Operation Yellowhammer warnings about no deal 'out of date'

Here are the main points from this morning’s Number 10 lobby briefing.

Number 10 said the Operation Yellowhammer document about the impact of a no-deal Brexit leaked to the Sunday Times yesterday was “out of date”. The prime minister’s spokeswoman said: “We are making all necessary preparations ahead of October 31”. She went on:

In relation to business we have been engaging widely and will continue to do so and that’s been significantly stepped up in recent weeks.

We have published numerous documents on how businesses can prepare.

You can expect to see further information being published in the coming weeks in relation to how the public ... can further prepare and the changes that they are likely to see across a range of areas.

Johnson claimed he remained “confident” that the EU would shift its position on the Northern Ireland backstop, allowing a Brexit deal to be agreed before 31 October. Asked about planning for no deal, he said:

I’m not going to suggest that there won’t be - as I said on the steps of Downing Street - there may well be bumps in the road but we will be ready to come out on October 31 deal or no deal.

Now of course our friends and partners on the other side of the Channel are showing a little bit of reluctance at the moment to change their position.

That’s fine - I’m confident that they will - but in the meantime we have to get ready for a no deal outcome.

I want a deal. We’re ready to work with our friends and partners to get a deal but if you want a good deal for the UK, you must simultaneously get ready to come out without one.

It is hard to see why Johnson is confident that the EU will back down because European leaders have been saying, almost unanimously and ad nauseam, that they are not willing to renegotiate the withdrawal agreement.

He said the UK would be ready for a no-deal Brexit on 31 October if that proved necessary. Speaking about no-deal preparations, he said:

If you look at the preparations the UK had made by March 29, we were very far advanced and things then slipped back a bit but we’re very confident that by October 31 we will be ready and that’s the crucial thing.

I think that’s what people want. People are very confident themselves that they can do it.

I’m not pretending that there won’t be bumps on the road. There will be, I said that on the steps of Downing Street, but if everybody puts their minds to it I have absolutely no doubt that we can get ready.

Boris Johnson at the Royal Cornwall Hospital this morning. Photograph: WPA Pool/Getty Images

In his Q&A Jeremy Corbyn would not commit to backing remain in a second referendum staged by Labour after a general election, and he would not rule out the party being neutral in such a contest. (See 11.46am and 11.55am.) But Corbyn has, of course, said that if there were a referendum now on a Tory Brexit, or on no deal, Labour would campaign for remain. I’ve amended the wording in those earlier posts because they did not make that clear. Sorry.

Corbyn says zero-hours contracts represent a return to the insecure labour conditions that used to apply to people working at the docks. Labour would end zero-hours contracts, he says.

In response to a question from a Labour supporter who asked what Corbyn would do about the media who tell lies, Corbyn says he is a member of the NUJ. A free press is very important, he says. But he says he wants to ensure that reporting is balanced, and that people have a right to reply. He set out plans for media reform in a speech in Edinburgh last year. Those plans would form the basis for Labour’s plans, he says.

He says it is crucial that people who are attacked in the media get a right of reply.

Corbyn says he represents a constituency where only around a third of people own their own homes. He wants more council housing, he says. He says Margaret Thatcher’s right to buy has led to a huge increase in the number of people having to rent from a private landlord.

Corbyn says there has been a lot of speculation about what other mechanisms might be used to block a no-deal Brexit. But those options are not available yet, he says. The option that is available is a no confidence vote.

Corbyn refuses to commit to backing remain in second referendum

Q: Why do you think so many Labour MPs do not see you as the right person to lead an interim government?

Corbyn says he was elected Labour leader in 2015, to the surprise of the mainstream media. He was elected again in 2016. He is sure all Labour MPs want to join him in backing a no confidence motion against the government.

Q: John McDonnell said this morning he would campaign for remain in a second referendum. Would you? And if not, can you see why remainers have doubts about your leadership?

Corbyn says McDonnell was giving his personal view.

He says the real issue is what must be done to end inequality in Britain.

Corbyn refuses to commit to backing remain in a second referendum held by Labour after a general election, fuelling speculation that the party might officially remain neutral. (See 9.33am and 11.46am.)